Nationwide Increases Mortgage Rates
March 28th, 2008 by Len
One of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders, the Nationwide, has announced its intention to increase its mortgage rates to help cope with the UK credit crunch.
Some of its mortgages, including fixed and tracker rate deals, will increase by around 0.6%. That’s a big hike for many mortgages.
That will put some of its interest rates at up to 7%. Some believe that the Nationwide is effectively pricing itself out of the market with this move.
However, many other mortgage lenders, as regular readers of this site will know, have even been withdrawing many of their mortgage products.
Independent mortgage brokers Savills director, Melanie Bien, said:
“While its mortgage range was pretty competitive before the hikes, this is no longer the case, Nationwide has chosen to chase margin rather than market share: any lender with a competitive deal is being inundated with business at the moment and many of them are coping with this by pricing themselves out of the market.”
These price increases may force some potential buyers to rush into getting a mortgage as quickly as they can and many will be looking for a fixed rate if they believe prices will continue to increase. Others may decide to hold off and wait for a better time in the market.
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